Leoš Janá?ek composed his Suite for wind instruments Mládí (in English youth) in 1924, so when he was over 70. Numerous sources still survive for this work, making it difficult to establish the defini...
Tchaikovsky spent the summer and autumn of 1880 at his sister’s country estate in Kam’ianka, Ukraine, where he sought peace and relaxation. But after a short time the desire to work took hold of him a...
The serenade flourished in Mozart’s era, but with Brahms the genre experienced a new surge in popularity in the 19th century. Dvořák’s cheerful and relaxed op. 22 came into being in 1875, during a ver...
Elgar’s Serenade for Strings was composed in 1892 and represents the first of his works with which the 35-year-old composer was truly satisfied. Whether, as often claimed, it derives from three pieces...
Alban Berg's String Quartet can be considered to be one of the founding works of the Second Viennese School. Already composed in 1910 and first published in 1920, it was the last composition the 25-ye...
Mozart's 'Kleine Nachtmusik' is surely one of the most popular works of so-called classical music. Although his manuscript is not completely free of corrections, it is still undoubtedly one of Mozart'...
In autumn 1895, after returning from New York once and for all, Dvorák took up his former position as teacher at the Prague Conservatory. This clearly had an inspiring impact on him because in the spa...
The Sextet in B-flat major was already judged to be 'one of the most beautiful works by this young composer' after its initial performances in early 1861. It was popular with both public and press, an...
Brahms's First String Sextet became very popular after its publication in 1861, yet his publisher Simrock still hesitated when the composer offered him a second such work in 1865, 'in the same cheerfu...
After Volumes IV and III of the series with Mozart's complete string quartets appeared as Henle Urtext editions in early 2017 and 2019 respectively, Mozart expert Wolf-Dieter Seiffert now presents Vol...
